Stiletto Nails

So today was fun!  I did my first full set of Stiletto nails - or "Pointy Nails", as I call them.  One of the cosmetology students at school brought her daughter in to get them done and here's the results!

To begin with I glued on the tips (see the pinkie finger) and then cut them with scissors to the approximate length and shape (see the ring finger) and then filed the tip into the exact shape and length she wanted (see the pointer finger and the middle finger).  

After all fingers are filed into shape I used the electric drill and blended the edge of the tip into the natural nail.

I then applied pink acrylic powder, same as always.

This is the completed set of nails with only a clear coat of polish.  She had to leave and go to school so we didn't have time to apply a color...

A close-up of the Stiletto Nails - although it looks like there's a hair in the polish on one of those fingers, oops!

She came back after her class and her mother applied the polish while I worked on another client
but here is the finished look, too fun!

Drag Art - or - Marbling Technique for Nails using Gel Polish

Alison was my model for this experiment, thank you Allie!
First I put the purple gel across the tips of the nails and dotted the ends

Then I dotted the nails with light purple gel and then a light blue gel.  I discovered that it is better to have slightly too much gel on the nails than not enough.

I used a dot making stylus to "drag" the colors together, creating a marbled look, then used the french tip brush to make the smile lines.  The best part about using gel polish over regular nail polish is the polish won't harden until you cure it under the UV light so you have lots of time to play with it!

Tah Dah!  "Drag Art" or Marbled nails, fun, fun fun!

These were fun to do and super-easy - I love gel polish!

In fact, after doing Alison's nails I had to do my own in blues, whoo hoo!  Sadly they are super-short because I had a lot of typing to do but they sure are fun!

February's Nails

So February was a crazy month, it seemed like I was everywhere and I was nowhere, all at once.  Here's what I accomplished in the Nail Tech arena!

Allie got a set of acrylic nails with Pandas!

Close up of the Panda I did - the other one was done by a fellow student to show me how!

I did my own mails - ignore my hangnails - I used clear gel and added blue and silver glitter to the gel for just the tips.

Examples of "Drag Art" using gel polish.  These polishes had glitter in them.

More Drag Art - I added glitter on top of the polishes for these examples

Final Drag Art examples.  The left nail has glitter added, the right nail had glitter in the polish.

A sweet little high school gal came in and let me play wither her nails!
I gave her gel nails with shimmery bits and glitter mixed into the gel on the tips.

I tried to get a close-up of the shimmer and glitter but it is hard to see :(

This was the first of a three-set day!  Jill came in and got Pink-And-Whites on top of tips.

A walk-in got a set of acrylics with a gold and black french gel polish job

A close up of the gel polish.

Kelly provided me with a fabulous learning experience - I did sculpted pink and whites with a more translucent pink than my regular powder and for some reason I started the white part where her natural nail ended, and she had nice, longer natural nails, instead of where her natural smile line was.  Oops!  But Kelly was a good sport and to fix it we did a black french gel polish over it - see below.

And viola!  Kelly loved her classy new look!  After three sets in a day I was totally worn out though and I realized I need much more practice because each set took me about 2 - 2 1/2 hours.  Kelly's was the only set of sculpted nails and so 2 1/2 hours is not unreasonable for a full set of sculpted nails but the other two sets used tips and I should have been much faster!

I bought some colored gel pots off of eBay and was playing around with them.  These both have the same base color but I used  purple shimmery pieces on one and blue-green shimmer pieces on the other.  The photo doesn't do either nail justice, they came out really cool!

Flair Nails

Okie dokie, so I had never heard of Flair Nails until one of the cosmetology students, Juanita, asked me to do some for her and pulled up some examples off of Pinterest.  As you will see in the photos below, Flair Nails get wider at the tip and to me it looks kind of like small fans coming out of the end of your finger...

Oh - I purposefully didn't put these photos in with my January post because it was long enough already and I wanted to document my steps here so I can look them up in the future without having to wade through a whole bunch of other pictures that don't have anything to do with Flair Nails.  :D

Bless her heart, Juanita was a very patient guinea pig while I figured out how to do them AND I had virtually the entire school hovering around me and watching for most of it.  Including the brand-new teacher and the owner of the school.  Yes, it was a little stressful but I learned a lot that day!  I did not do a very good job on Juanita's nails (sorry girl!) but I feel much better about the set I did today on Gretchen's hand (see the photos after this set).  So here's my photo journey about learning Flair Nails...

First I glued tips to Juanita's fingers and then put my reusable forms under the tips

For the first hand I did I tried adding the acrylic over the tips and fanning it out onto the forms on the sides.  It was rather difficult and did not come out very well...

For the second hand I put acrylic on all the nails and tips like a normal set and then added the form underneath to add the edges

Here's a different angle

After the final filing, they are smooth and ready to polish.  The "Flair" isn't consistent from finger to finger :(

After the polish - Juanita chose a very light pink and green and they didn't show up in the photo very well.

Necessary tools of the trade...

Today I decided to kill two birds with one stone and practice the Pink and White technique AND Flair Nails, whoo hoo!  Using my faithful practice hand, Gretchen, I started with the sculpting forms and used my silver acrylic powder to sculpt the "white" part of the Flair Nail.

Then I filled in the "pink" part with pink #2 acrylic powder 

Remove the forms and behold, Flair!

After filing and a top coat

The thumb, after filing and a top coat.

Time for some bling!  You'll notice that some of the nails received extra filing to keep the Flair angle more consistent in between the Nail Art photos and the "finished with top coat" photos...

Ta Dah!  The only thing I don't like about using the flash was how glittery it made the silver acrylic powder tips look.  In reality, under normal light they just like like a slate grey with a small amount of metallic shine... like the pictures below:

And those, my friends, are Flair Nails!

January's Nails and a New Work Schedule

Soooo...  my new schedule at work is 4 ten-hour days and on my week-days off I go to school from 9 - 5.  I get every-other weekend off.  The first weekend I had off in January was full of Birthday adventures for various family members and the second weekend I had off in January we helped a friend move.

...Therefore I haven't had much time to update my blog, ugh!  So here goes, I'm aiming for short and sweet with mostly photos, enjoy!

Allie stopped by the house for clear gel nails with white tips and peacock decals.

A close-up of the peacock decal/sticker

I LOVE Butterflies!  I gave myself a full set of clear gel nails with pearly blue tips, butterfly "tattoos" with light blue rhinestones.  This is one of my favorite sets of nails so far, whoo hoo!

My thumb...  :)

Jenn stopped by the school for a full set of  clear gel nails with white tips

Me again, clear gel nails, silver tips and clear rhinestones.

Allie came over for a fill, I think these are still gel with gel polish and pearls

Jenn came back for a new full set of clear gel with natural tips and silver glitter

Allie visited me at school and this time we did a full set of acrylics, pink powder, red painted french tips with silver polish accents

Gretchen's back!  Gretchen is my practice hand and I thought this picture was the finished product, however it is not, sorry!  These are sculpted pink and white acrylics before being filed into their final shape.

And then I went home and did a full set of pink and whites on my daughter, Rachel.  

I didn't sculpt these, they are tips with pink and white acrylic overlays.

I did really thick whites on purpose and focused on making crisp smile lines.

And today at school - nobody came to see me :(  So I amused myself with nail art...

These four were the best, and yes, I did the flowers on the red nail free-hand!